Cement Industry Solution to Treatment
of Contaminated Livestock: Comparison between Belgium and the
UK

PCB CONTAMINATED
LIVESTOCKBELGIUM
1999

Problem:

A proportion of Belgium's livestock population
was contaminated with PCBs. To protect the health of consumers,
the government ordered the destruction of all contaminated meat
and derived products.

Solution:

As there was insufficient incineration capacity
to achieve this, the government ruled that three cement works
should use the material as fuel. In the four months at the end
of that year, 7,500 tonnes of powders and 10,000 tonnes of fats
were used at the factories. The factories' existing emissions
restrictions would have applied throughout this time. A complete,
controlled disposal solution was achieved by capitalising on relevant
cement kiln attributes:

 high temperaturesminimising
dioxin and furan emissions;

 any ash generated was incorporated
in the cement.

Cement Industry's role:

Integral to a swift solution.

FOOTAND
MOUTH INFECTED
LIVESTOCKUK 2001

Problem:

Over four million beastscattle, sheep
and pigswere infected with foot and mouth disease. The
government's resulting slaughter programme, initiated to bring
the outbreak to an end, resulted in almost 500,000 tonnes of animal
carcasses having to be disposed of.

In a bilateral meeting with Agency representatives
Lafarge raised the potential for cement kilns to be used in disposing
of Foot and Mouth infected beasts. Their response was:

 the substitute fuels protocol would
applya 17 month period to get permanent permission to use
rendered beasts in the process (this period of applications, consultations
and a trial made the use of the cement kilns as part of the delivery
of the required swift solution untenable.

 the protocol would not apply if cement
production was suspended and the kilns were given over solely
to incinerating the carcasses of animalsa commercially
impossible proposition.

The following relevant cement industry attributes
were not capitalised on:

 A nation-wide plant network.

 Established, rigorous environmental
emissions controls.

 Low dioxin and furan formation due
to high temperatures.

REFERENCES

There must be a period of baseline operation
when comprehensive extractive gas and particulates tests are carried
out in conjunction with the operators own continuous monitoring.